Want to Save on Groceries? Cook like a Peasant

This post is by staff writer April Dykman, who just discovered the wonders of walnut sponge cake.

Ever notice how most cultures have their own take on rice? Risotto in Italy, Spanish rice in Mexico, dirty rice in New Orleans, paella in Spain — all filling dishes that can satisfy a family with just a few ingredients.

In fact, it could be argued that some of the most famous (and delicious) meals were invented by people who were short on time, money, and resources and had to make do with what was available. For example, ribollita, a Tuscan soup, is made with leftover bread and vegetable soup, but it makes me wish I had day-old minestrone and stale bread in the house more often. It’s the best kind of comfort food.

Consider the following dishes:

Ribollita. The name means reboiled, and though there are many variations, the dish always includes leftover bread, inexpensive vegetables like cabbage and onion, and cannellini beans. During the Middle Ages, only the wealthy could afford meat. Peasants had to make do with whatever was available and often combined stale bread with vegetables to make soup. There’s no one way to do it, making it a simple dish that’s hard to screw up. If you prefer to use a recipe, here’s one from Chef Mario Batali, but the real money-saving ribollita is the one a peasant would make, using your leftover ingredients.

Ratatouille. The flavors of late-summer and fall produce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, and herbs) are deepened in this traditional dish from Nice. Add a slice of a crusty bread and you’re set. There’s debate on the right way to make it — sauté the vegetables together or sauté separately and combine them before serving? I’ve had both and wouldn’t turn down either. I’m not a stickler for tradition when it comes to food; in fact, my introduction to ratatouille was a Jacques Pépin riff — he served it on penne pasta.

Bibimbap. This signature Korean dish means “mixed rice” or “mixed meal,” and is typically made with steamed rice, vegetables, a raw or fried egg, and sliced meat. Served hot or cold and easy to prepare, it was voted one of the world’s 50 most delicious foods in a 2011 CNN poll. One theory about its origins is that it was a meal made for peasants during the farming season, when long days in the rice field necessitated a single bowl of rice with side dishes thrown in. Here’s how to make bibimbap in 10 steps.

Frittatas. If peasant food is about taking cheap ingredients and transforming them into something more substantial, a frittata surely fits the bill. If you have vegetables on the verge of going bad, broil them, whisk in some eggs, and in 15 minutes or so you have a meal. The variations are endless, but here’s a five-ingredient chickpea and rosemary frittata recipe for inspiration.

Fajitas. Compared with ingredients like cabbage and rice, meat is expensive. But if you embrace cheaper, less popular cuts of meat, like pork shoulder and chicken thighs, you can keep your grocery bill down and still eat like a king (or, um, a peasant?). Flank steak, for example, becomes fajitas when you marinade it and add chiles, lime, and cilantro, all wrapped up in a tortilla, of course. I don’t use a recipe for fajitas, but this one is pretty close to how we make ’em at home.

Of course, if you’re reading this, you won’t truly cook like a peasant. You probably have more than five ingredients in your kitchen, not to mention supermarkets nearby with almost every ingredient imaginable. So I suggest keeping a few less-than-peasant-like staples on hand to make it easier to throw together a meal. The following ingredients are always in our kitchen and add serious flavor and interest to meals:

Bacon. You can throw it in a frittata, make real bacon bits for a more satisfying salad, or use it to start a pasta sauce base. Chopped bacon with onion and red pepper flakes is the start of so many good things.

A good bottle of extra-virgin olive oil, as fresh-from-the-press as possible. We buy ours from a specialty shop that imports oils three weeks after pressing, and it makes a huge difference. Salad dressings are more flavorful, and it puts the finishing touch on homemade pizza. To keep costs down, we save it for vinaigrette and to finish meals and use cheaper olive oil for cooking.

Even though we don’t live the peasant life (thank goodness!), by following the same principles — cheap, filling ingredients and meals meant to stretch whatever was on hand — you can slash your food expenses without sacrificing flavor. I submit you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who thinks eating fajitas is an unpleasant way to reduce the grocery bill. In Texas, we’d call that loco en la cabeza.

What meals do you make that use inexpensive ingredients and feed the whole family? What are your most useful staples?

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One of the best financial decisions I ever made was to take cooking lessons. It makes dinner prep fun instead of work, and had paid for itself 10 fold.

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IamFI

Okay so I’m late to the party in reading this post. I think it is a really valuable one especially in showing that a frugal approach and lifestyle is completely achievable while maintaining a high quality of life. These are fantastic meal ideas! Too often frugality “looks” and feels like frugality (glasses taped together, old clothes). My cooking style is Mediterranean (my ethnicity too) and good food (cooked at home – go Michael Pollan!)is doable, esp in this way – hell these Italian mommas have been doing this for centuries. 🙂 I made two whole (natural) chickens, served them first night to 5 people, then integrated them into fried rice and vegetable soup which made it go 5 nights. Happy husband, happy kid. Brings the cost for a high end product way down. The other thing I am lucky to have is a big freezer in the garage which I took over from my brewer husband. (one time sunk cost.) If you cook one meal, cook 3 or 4, then on a Wed. or Thurs. you’ve got a nice preprepared dish. (Don’t skimp on freezer bags, go for the gold.) The latter is my working mommy awesome meals secret.

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Danial Jose

Hello there! This post could not be written much better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept talking about this. I will send this information to him. Pretty sure he’s going to have a great read. I appreciate you for sharing!

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The Couponing Dad

Lol! I was almost offended at first, thinking you were targeting peasants, but I actually liked your post.. very interesting. I actually like fajitas as well.. and we always make sure to stay stocked up on olive oil (sitting on a few bottles I bought for cheap via couponing some months back). We actually used to have some meals we’d call peasant food though, like fried spam and white rice, or white rice and eggs, things of that nature. lol! Very interesting post though.. and I may have to try ratatouille one day.

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PK

Wow. Some of the items touted here as cheap and cheerful are some of the most expensive items in my weekly shop here in Perth, Australia. From bacon at $8.63/lb to chicken at $4.96/lb, lettuces at $5 each, cauliflower at $7 each and broccoli at almost $3.70/lb, to ground beef at $6.36/lb, and $7 for a dozen eggs – even rice, which as a diabetic I can’t eat a lot of, is around $2/lb! Cheap bread is also out – gluten free bread costs me $7.50 for an 11-slice loaf (which is impossible to eat any way but toasted, as it tastes like cardboard and crumbles like foam)! And forget steak – the cheap and nasty stuff starts at $6/lb right through to $16.36/lb for eye fillet, and up to $30/lb for wagyu! Although, I have to agree that it’s still cheaper (just) to cook and eat at home than to go out, since a simple meal at somewhere like Outback Jacks is $30-40 for an average sized meal (not enough to share with a friend here) about half the size of what we were served when we visited the US (in 2009 and 2010) for half the price…Food – whether at a restaurant or supermarket – in Australia is horribly expensive…

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Mark

Interesting thoughts on eating like a peasant. My issue is that I’m the fussiest eater in the world!! Lucky to those who aren’t fussy eaters, miserable for us that are.

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APB News

Using rice and beans to stretch meat is a great option. I use brown rice as filler and chopped beef or turkey lunchmeat as a flavoring in stuffed acorn squash. Enchiladas and tacos get rice and beans mixed with pulled pork or ground turkey. Makes it go a long way (and it tastes better than meatloaf).

Daisy

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ricketpjs

Every culture has tons of food options that are affordable and relatively easy to make.

About a year ago I decided to learn how to cook South Asian (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri lanka) food. A couple of cookbooks later, and a visit to the ‘Punjabi Market’ neighbourhood on our next visit to the closest city for a few of the spices.

We save tons of money, we eat ‘cheap’ food that is exotic, interesting and easy to make. The beautiful thing about most curries is that they use very accessible ingredients, with a few spices in various configurations. It is truly an accessible cuisine.

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Savvy Scot

A slow cooker was one of the best presents we have ever received. You can put so many leftover ingredients in at the end of the week and you are always left with something tasty!

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Farm Mom

Beans! Beans! Beans!
Cooking with beans helps save a ton of money. Pair it with the right grains and you have a complete protein.
Even my meat-and-potato-loving husband has agreed to replace at least one supper a week with a vegetarian option to save money.
My favorite go-to for these recipes is Katie’s new book “Everything Beans” from Kitchen Stewardship. Check it out: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/03/01/now-available-the-everything-beans-book/

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Tackling Our Debt

I find making dishes like cabbage rolls and roladen very inexpensive to make, yet very delicious.

Our meal plan also includes things like swedish meatballs, meatloaf, roast chicken. Basically whatever is on sale that week at the grocery store.

Some one mentioned sauerkraut above which I love. Next month I am going to make a pork chop and sauerkraut dish that I found online.

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Tackling Our Debt

I find making dishes like cabbage rolls and roladen very inexpensive to make, yet very delicious. Our meal plan also includes things like swedish meatballs, meatloaf, roast chicken. Basically whatever is on sale that week at the grocery store.

Some mentioned sauerkraut above which I love. Next month I am going to make a pork chop and sauerkraut dish that I found online.

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Bethany

One of my favorite money-saving meals is to buy a whole chicken, which you can often get on sale as cheap as $.79 a pound, roast it and serve that for dinner with sides. Then take most of the meat off the carcass, put the carcass in a pot with water and make broth (I usually use a roast chicken recipe that makes a really flavorful broth on it’s own, so I don’t usually add veggies to the broth.) Reduce the broth down to half, take the chicken out and remove the leftover bits of meat, put that back in the pot with carrots and celery and egg noodles or rice and you’ve got a big pot of chicken soup!

With making sandwiches or having leftovers out of the remaining chicken, we generally get 3-4 meals for two out of this.

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Rail

Hi everyone! Having grown up and living in the middle of Iowa a staple of life is the Potato. Since most of the Iowa immigrants that came here in the 1800’s were English/Irish/German/Norwegan/Dutch the potato is about manditory in at least one dish a day. Taters are good keepers in the celler and can be made so many ways. Bake a bunch and put extras in the fridge. Next day you can make hashbrowns or fryed. Boil a bunch and eat them that way, or mash them. Once again the leftovers will keep in the fridge and you have another meal. Cook them with carrots, onion, cabbage, garlic, celery in a roast beef. Potatos and saurkraut and sausages(brats etc.) are awsome! Taters are a versatile staple along with eggs, rice, beans, veggies, pastas, etc. A good way to stretch ground meat is eggs and breadcrumbs (AKA meatloaf) but you can make burgers that way too. There are lots of tips and hints out there. My biggest advice is if you can find a woman who lived through the Great Depression, ask her about some cooking tips and advice on frugality. 99% of them were masters of making do in the kitchen and home.

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Ellen (Gluten Free Diva)

I’m particularly drawn to rice (and other gluten free grains) because of the fact that they’re gluten free AND they’re so versatile. I bought a rice cooker a few years ago and it gets a daily workout in my gluten free kitchen. I use it to make all manner of grains from white and brown rice to oatmeal and quinoa and millet. You name it, my rice cooker can handle it!

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Melissa

One of my favorite inexpensive staples is whole fresh chickens. I purchase several when they are on sale, stew one and throw the rest in the freezer. The stewed chicken, cooked with whatever veggies and herbs I have available, is then transformed into as many as three “meat meals” for my family of five. Soups, stews, enchiladas, pasta dishes,and many other thing are inexpensive meals. Oh yeah, the chicken bones are further cooked in the stewing liquid, yeilding a delicious broth.

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Lynda

One of my go-to cheapo, easy food is dried beans. Red beans, lentils, dried lima beans, mixed beans, any of them will do and are versatile. Cook them using either the quick soak, and simmer for a couple hours or wash them and put them in the slow cooker with cut up ham or sausage, onion, bell pepper, garlic, carrots and sometimes celery and season with garlic salt season salt pepper, thyme and a little crushed red pepper. Serve with steamed white or brown rice.

My other cheap, easy and versatile meal is pasta. I keep various types in the pantry with canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. Ground beef on sale, make traditional spaghetti. Boneless/skinless is always a good buy, so saute that with cali veg & penne, or add a jar of spaghetti sauce or alfrado sauce. Same with frozen shrimp or scallops. Or just saute fresh chopped veg in evoo & butter or bacon grease. Putinesca is the ultimate in peasant pasta dishes, really easy and fast to make and really good.

Finally – leftover thanksgiving soup: a pot with cut up turkey, mashed potatoes, left over vegetables, gravy, add water and some stock and let simmer for an hour. Take what ever leftover cooked meat and veg you have, add water and/or stock, add seasoning and simmer for an hour. Leftover’s will never go to waste again 🙂

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Heather

Chili is a big favorite of mine, and I recently realized that all the things I need to make chili are considered staples in my house. “Mexican”-style food is a favorite as well.

The problem I’ve been running into, cooking for 2 people, is that things go to waste. With my low-appetite issues, I can’t bring myself to eat leftovers soon after the original dish unless they’re either chili, or turned into something else. I’ve learned how to make some great 2-serving casseroles though! 8-inch square baking dishes are my friend.

That being said, I can make an entire batch of chili or lasagna and freeze it in meal-size packages, then we have them to re-heat in a couple weeks without as much work. Now that I’m moving into a place with a standing freezer, and cooking 3 different sets of meal plans for 4 people, batch cooking will be an easier process. When I make chili for me, I put meat in it. But since we now have a vegetarian to cook for, I can make the batch with no meat and either chop up hot dogs into mine and my partner’s, or we mix in taco meat.

Rice is becoming more of a feature in our meals recently since I eased up on the low-carb-ness. I’m finding that having a bowl of brown rice cooked in the fridge already makes breakfast more interesting. We can either heat it up with milk and butter and some sort of sweetener, or fry it up with leftover veggies and meat topped with a fried egg in what my partner likes to call “breakfast stir fry.”

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Lynda

One of the things we make at my house is ‘breakfast rice’. I usually leave the rice in the non-stick pot I cooked it in the night before, so the next morning I add butter, milk, 1 egg, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix it up and let it simmer (covered) until the liquid is absorbed into the rice. It’s kinda like rice pudding, but drier, and a good way to use up left over steamed white or brown rice the next day

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partgypsy

My oldest daughter loves rice. Oftentimes in the morning take leftover rice, mix in some milk and eat it for breakfast.

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Sleeping Mom

I have a list of “budget recipes” that include arroz con pollo, shepherd’s pie, beans and rice, enchiladas…wow too many to name.

I notice similar ingredients popping up in all my budget recipes such as beans, rice, ground beef, chicken and potatoes. Along with using inexpensive ingredients, budget recipes also tend to yield a ton of servings so we end up having plenty of leftovers.

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Joe

I find that if I treat myself to delicious foods at the grocery store, I generally eat out much less and eating, in itself, is a nice sit-down activity rather than mere sustenance. I guess it totally depends on your values. I’d rather eat steak than go on an annual vacation to Mexico. Maybe I’ll die a few thousand poorer and a few years younger, but I’ll have lived.

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ali

Beans and Rice can be spicy!

I was briefly a vegetarian and I ate a lot of beans. My basic way to make beans – saute garlic and onion, add chipotle chile powder, cumin, salt and pepper, a dash of dry coriander, then add a can of beans (or 2 cups), 1 cup thawed frozen corn (I could get bags for $1 and use over several meals), and saute — taste and adjust seasonings. Optionally at the end add lime and cilantro.

Other options – add bell pepper (or other fresh chile) and zucchini at the beginning. Add Ro Tel or salsa at the end, or throw in some canned green chiles or chipotle in adobo sauce (and some of the sauce).

Then serve as a burrito, over rice, over cornbread, or in a bowl. with some cheese on top (or sour cream if you are into that)

Even though it’s a basic recipe it tastes different depending on what variations you use and what types of beans (I always used different types of beans).

Oh you can even make this a kind of breakfast dish and throw a poached or fried egg on top.

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Andrew

Good article and even better comments. I’m getting lots of good ideas –which is especially helpful for someone whose mind goes blank when faced with the need to think of something for dinner.

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ginny

Forgot! I use extra virgin olive oil for the cooking of the sausage/potato dish. Bertolli.
Sorry.

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Julie @ Freedom 48

Some great ideas!

I love “cleaning out the fridge”, getting creative, and making a real meal out of it! There’s something satisfying about creating an “acceptable” meal out of nothing (or even better – one that gets rave reviews!)

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ginny

@ElNerdo Thanks for the bacon bits!!
A long time ago, some bow hunting friends served me a dish made of cooked potatoes, some kind of meat, I forgot what kind, onion, etc. This was in a campground in the forest. Found the dish delicious, so worked on it and still work on it. The ingredients aren’t cut and dried. This dish for me goes a long ways.
What I call my sausage/potato dish as follows:
Sausage, did use a certain smoked ring, when it went from 16 ounces to 13, started trying other ideas. Johnsonville is packaging fresh in 1 pound packages and it works well. A pound of whatever turns you on and goes with the other ingredients.
Potatoes, Yukon Gold, Red or the White ones. Don’t want them to cook to mashed. My wok won’t hold more than three pounds with all the other stuff. Diced no more than 1/2-inch.
Green Bell Pepper, a large one, dice about 3/4-inch or so.
Onion, large yellow and have used sweet onions also. diced, size your choice.
Garlic, have used 3 or 4 large cloves, chopped fine.
Only seasoning I use is salt and fresh ground pepper.
Even had a carrot left in the fridge and chopped it kind fine and added it in at the proper time. Just made the mixture a bit sweeter.
Prepare in my wok. Cook the sausage/whatever first, drain on paper towels.
I do the potatoes next until they start to soften, add onions, cook a bit more, add garlic and add the green pepper at the almost very end. It cooks quickly. Add the sausage back in and cook together for a bit.
You can now have a bowl full with whatever for dinner and burritos for the rest of the week. Freezes well.

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Priswell

Excellent article!

Cooking at home is the way to eat better for less, hands down. Learning to cook has almost become a lost art, and I like to think that basic cooking skills will come back into fashion. It’s also interesting that lots of foods that we think are “special” began their lives as peasant food – nutritious and tasty, but inexpensive.

Y’all need to check out one of my very favorite blogs, Budget Bytes (budgetbytes.blogspot.com). She breaks her recipes down by cost and ingredients so you can see how much it costs to make something per serving. I seriously love her recipes.

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Bella

I love the comments, thinking about it now I have a lot of dishes that I make that basically – ground beef or chicken breast tenders chopped, whatever veggies are in the fridge diced, spices (depends on what we feel like, mexican, chinese, italian, etc…) and a starch (rice, potato, pasta). In fact – I would say 90% of what I cook fall into this catagory – but my husband thinks I’m a great cook so there you go.

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Lindsay

I like to make burritos/wraps using black beans (add taco-type seasoning) and diced yams (for the yams, just peel and dice, put in a bowl and cover with saran wrap or a plate, and cook about 10 min in microwave!) top with lettuce. Avocado is a nice addition, as well as plain yogurt. Very quick, filling, and cheap!

I also like to make ratatouille (esp. in summer when there is way too much zucchini and tomato!)

Pizza is another one I make often. We like pepperoni and marinated artichoke hearts (both ingredients are very cheap at sams club).

Ham and split pea soup

Chicken and dumplings/biscuits using boiled chicken leg quarters.

Last week I made a pasta casserole with boiled rotini; jarred tomato sauce; firm tofu blended with 1 egg, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, italian seasonings; and sliced zucchini. I layered the ingredients about 2 times in a 13×9 pyrex and put a little mozzarella cheese on top. baked at 350 for about 45 min. It was really good, and could be made with a variety of veggies or mushrooms or even add italian sausage!

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Sharon

Don’t forget bread pudding. Make it with enough eggs and milk and effectively you have French Toast, which makes a great quick breakfast once you cook up the main bread pudding.

Add a lemon sauce and it can be dessert, too.

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Windy

We have three kids, 11, 8, and 8. My piece of advice? Plan your meals around your groceries. If I need fresh parsley for one meal, I’ll make sure to add a few more dishes through the week that need parsley, too (it’s also great in salads!). We also have “kitchen sink fried rice” or “kitchen sink pizza” to use up leftover vegetables.

I also make my own salad dressing out of coarse-ground mustard, a splash of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and some olive oil. Add to a mason jar and shake.

What else? If you need a little lime or lemon zest, go ahead and zest the whole fruit. You can freeze the extra.

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Lindsay

The other night, I used leftover ratatouille as a pizza topping and it was delicious! 🙂

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Carla

I have very low iron levels despite how many green vegetables I eat on a daily basis. In addition to eating red meat at least once a week (which can be expensive, especially since I only buy grass fed), I sometimes make bone broths from beef bones which if made correctly, can contain a lot of iron.

I just ask the people at the meat counters for any excess bones they may have. Its free and can make a good health supplement.

(Going completely meat free is not an option for me health wise for a variety of reasons no matter how much I like the idea.)

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El Nerdo

You ever eat lentils? I’m a meat-eater too and lentils go great with steak! They also have lots of iron. They are also great in a salad and with fried eggs. I do not like soup but some people swear by it. Also, molasses can be added strategically to beans, stews, milk, or desserts.

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Carla

I’m not a big legume eater, but I do like a good dahl soup once in a while.

Thanks for molasses reminder. I usually buy the black strap from the co-op and that always adds a kick to whatever I’m making.

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El Nerdo

I’m not a big legume eater either but there’s an old belief that eating lentils on mondays is supposed to bring money ha ha ha. eh– why not?

—

ps- also if you’re a real carnivore like yours truly– liver!!!! liver is amazing!!! i love tender buffalo liver lightly fried in grass butter, a pinch of coarse salt, a dash or two of black pepper, and bam! with a nice red wine! delicious! if my budget is down to the last few coins i buy organic chicken livers at the co-op and same thing! and besides freshly grilled, you can make chopped livers, patés, etc. suppa-iron!

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Lynda

I was playing around in my kitchen and on the internet and created a good one pot dish with lentils, quinoa and kale (also did it with mixed southern style greens and it worked out great too. Turned it into soup and also a pilaf. Very versatile.

Saute carrots, onions garlic, mushrooms and celary in evoo and butter or bacon grease for about 5 minutes. Season with garlic salt, pepper, saason salt, thyme and crushed red pepper (or not)
Add quinoa and lentils and let them come together for about 5 minutes. Add ham or smoked sausage, like hillshire farm beef sausage, and/or bacon (cause everything is better with bacon) (or not if you’re vegetarian). Add 3 to 6 cups of stock (whatever kind you like, chicken or veg). 3 gives you a pilaf, 6 gives you a good soup. Zest 1 lemon and squeeze in the juice. Finally add 1 package of cleaned & cutup fresh kale, greens or spinach (your choice or leave it out) Simmer, covered, for at least 30 minutes. This is a recipe I’ve been playing with and it’s been good every time. Plus it as lots of good for you foods in it.

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partgypsy

I’m like you and am always near anemic. A nutritionist after reviewing my diet said that some people just don’t absorb non-animal iron as well as other people. I do eat red meat (as well as organ meat) but not daily so in addition I eat spinach (cooked in some form), lentils and other beans, and shellfish. In addition, my husband started doing a lot of cooking in a cast iron skillet and it really seemed to help both of our iron levels. There are so many good iron skillet dishes out there it has also expanded our cooking repetoire.

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Carla

Interesting you bring that up because I cook exclusively on and in cast iron, and have my entire life. It’s hard to imagine using anything else in the kitchen.

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stellamarina

To help you better absorb iron from iron rich foods, it is good to eat the foods along with foods high in Vit C such as tomatoes.

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Ru

Like many art students, I literally eat like a peasant. Very little meat, loads of vegetables. I cut my food bills and my waistline by not eating carbohydrates with my evening meal- why do you need that energy release at night?

My advice would be to shop at Asian supermarkets if you can and pick up flavourful ingredients like teriyaki sauce, chilli, sushi vinegar. A mooli/daikon radish can be turned into a whole meal very easily, and I can get them 4 for £1 off my local market. These places also sell giant sacks of rice. Sure it’s a struggle getting it home, but it’s much cheaper than the tiny packets you get elsewhere! Making your own sushi can be very reasonable if you make maki rolls, and fun too.

Make your own pastry from scratch instead of buying it- I made a huge pie today for about £2 and £1 of that was the chicken (a treat).

I like to buy dry and frozen ingredients to avoid having to eat up fresh things super fast. Dry mushrooms can be a little chewy sometimes, but they’re great for adding protein to rice or soups. I could never force myself to eat a whole broccoli, so the frozen stuff is a great alternative. I buy bread when it’s in the discount bin, freeze it and use it for toast.

I never buy milk, partly because I’m mildly lactose intolerant and partly because then I have to use it up, often making things that are bad for me. In my morning porridge I use Coffee Mate instead; it adds the creamy taste I love.

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Bella

You had me right up until the Coffee Mate in your porridge. I guess since it has no actual semblance of real milk or cream – you don’t have to worry about lactose but still…

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Carla

Coconut or hemp milk is a good, healthy alternative.

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Ru

Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it is all I can say. I actually really like it. My recipe is 1/2 cup oats, 4/5 cup boiling water, and about a tablespoon of Coffee Mate.

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Lynda

My boyfriend is lactose intolerant, and he finds almond milk a very good alternative, plus it has a long shelf/fridge life.

Also, try re-hydrating your mushrooms in hot water for a bit in broth or hot water before putting them in your dish, and add the mushroom water into the for extra flavor.

Also, you can use any large tough green (collard, kale, chard) to make a leftover wrap (same chop leftovers/add seasoning & starch/wrap idea as above). Steaming the greens first helps so they are pliable.

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Nick

Awesome post!

For the last few years I’ve been running a food blog and regularly post economical meals. If readers want a few more suggestions, check it out!

My favorite way to save on groceries is with my AMEX card: Blue Cash Preferred. 6% back on groceries, 3% on gas and retail, 1% etc. I shop at the grocery store as if I’m Bill Gates, and everywhere else like I’m broke. I see it as an investment in my body.

Eating healthy is a financial nightmare, but I’m unwilling to compromise. Hopefully the government stops subsidizing junk food so that I don’t have to spend my life savings once a week at the grocery store to get real food.

I do this, too! I have been known to live in a cheap apartment, cut cable ride my bike (instead of driving or taking the bus) and wear holes in my clothes, but I will always go out of my way to buy quality things at the grocery store.

I do try and limit my meat/dairy intake, and focus on using eggs, beans, rice, etc., but I definitely spend more on food than any other budget item aside from the obvious like rent.

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Carla

Amen to that. When you have health issues directly related to diet (PCOS/insulin resistance in my case) and intolerances (gluten, soy, dairy) etc, you tend to look at food/diet/budget in a totally different light. Also having MS, I have another reason to make sure I eat the best foods I can. Eating a lot of the normally cheap foods is just not an option for me.

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Matt at Healthy N’ Wealthy

I’m sorry that you have to deal with those health issues. I highly suggest you look into the Paleo diet, if you haven’t already. Our modern diets are way out of touch with what our bodies are designed to use. Too many carbs and inflammatory crap (gluten) -> insulin resistance and menstrual disorders. Its not surprising that PCOS in women correlates with male pattern baldness in men, and mpb correlates with increased risk for prostate cancer. All are linked to insulin resistance, which affects testosterone (and estrogen), which affects PCOS. Keep insulin/sugar and inflammation down, and you should feel better.

I’ll be doing a post about my diet (basically Paleo), and why I eat that way, at my own blog above. Here’s a post from a doctor about insulin, it’s spot-on:

Thanks, Matt! I do eat Paleo for the most part – long before I knew it had a name and its made a huge difference in my health, from my skin to my digestion. I was kind of “forced” in to it in a way from what my body was doing at such a young age. I will take a look at the link…

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Economically Humble

Not only do you save on the cost of groceries, you also save on the long term healthcare costs associated with all too common chronic diseases. Several well known studies that examine how people ate before and after moving to the United States explain that the typical american diet (and accompanying lifestyle) is unhealthy. By cooking like a peasant you are quite likely to save on long term medical/health care.

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Sharon

Please do not indulge in magical thinking. These studies are NOT based on anything useful or reliable.

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Elizabeth

Every time someone says “magical thinking” I feel like I’ve stumbled into a Harry Potter novel 😉

I’m skeptical whenever anyone says “typical American diet” or “Western diet” as if everyone eats the same things and lifestyle makes no difference.

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Carla

I guess assuming they are eating fast and processed foods.

I tend to turn my nose up on the assumptions that “Americans eat a typical SAD”, but when I venture outside my West Coast paradise, I’m always amazed at what people eat.

I generally go for “healthy” (meaning highly nutritious, not necessarily super low calorie, and certainly not low fat) over “frugal,” but nothing beats a good chili. I feed two people for four days on a pound of ground bison – my chili is mostly veg and beans.

Panzanella is another great way to use stale bread. Tomato, basil, maybe some onion or olives if you want; add some pearl mozzarella if you have ’em; toss in cubed bread and dress with homemade vinaigrette. Delicious.

I always keep pasta and olive oil in my kitchen… they can be eaten by themselves or added to almost every dish for some extra calories.

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Kyle

I have a couple of peasant food pro tips!

1) It’s OK to eat the same thing over and over again (if it’s something you like). I pack up five identical (or nearly identical) lunches on Sunday night – usually some kind of bean soup and some kind of seasonal vegetable dish – and then I don’t have to worry about my at-work lunch all week.

2) When you use meat sparingly, use the most flavorful meats you can. I’m a fan of chicken thighs, because I think their flavor goes a lot further in a recipe than the flavor of white meat. And I always try to get the spiciest sausages. Lamb can be expensive, but a little bit goes a long way (and it’s often more sustainably farmed than other meats).

There are so many recipes/ideas in this thread that I can’t wait to try!

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Jen

This post came at an excellent time! We’re looking to purchase a house in the next year, and we visited the local market in that neighborhood the other day. They had GIGANTIC bags of rice for less than $8! If I ate it at every meal, every day, it would take me weeks to finish it off. But rice just gets boring by itself – and I never remember the different ideas for preparing it to make it more interesting. Thanks for the ideas!

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Bareheadedwoman

My current peasant passion is something I saw on some archeology discovery/history channel something not too long ago…some sort of roman plebeian-life reenactment. Anyway the dish is called “Pulsim”

It’s a quick saute of smooshed salt & garlic, olive oil, chick peas and kale…on a good day, strong sausage. For whatever reason, watching the reenactor make it struck my taste buds and, happening to have everything on site, I tried it and absolutely loved it.

I’ve liked a lot of various chic-pea salad, multi-cultural type things but something about this hit the spot for a winter-jaded appetite. Super cheap too.

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louisa @ TheReallyGoodLife

I’m reading this while eating a leftover misc-stuff-in-spicy-rice dish so I think I’m already on board with the eating like a peasant idea 🙂

Our spice collection is by far the most important factor in making cheap meals – without them we couldn’t eat all the rice and beans/pulses we do without getting very bored.

We’ve also got our own chickens so always have plenty of eggs on hand for bulking our leftovers or providing a quick, cheap meal.

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myscientificlife

We eat a lot of pastas, chili, and soups. Chili and soup freeze well. I usually make bread to go with it, and it’s super cheap.

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Dahlia

Correction- traditionally, bibimbap does not include meat. I traveled in Korea extensively and at bibimbap throughout the country and it never included meat. And I completely disagree with Annalise above, I’ve never had bibimbap I didn’t like. Different strokes for different folks, but I don’t want other readers to be put off by her review.

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Stupidly Happy

Will definitely try some of the above ideas – they sound great. Below is one of my favorites;

How about Shepard’s Pie – ground beef (lamb, turkey, or chicken also), garlic, rosemary, thyme, mixed veggies (I use frozen to save on waste), and homemade mashed potatoes. One of my kid’s favorite meals. We usually get two meals out of it.

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Katie B.

Hi April,

Great article – thanks! My husband and I follow a few general rules to keep our grocery bills low ($300-$350 per month for the two of us, plus an additional $100-$150 per month for restaurant dining):

– use meal planning to have a general list of the meals we can make each week based on ingredients we have on hand
– use meat mostly as an ingredient in grain or pasta-based dishes rather than as the main feature of the meal
– keep many basic ingredients on hand, including grains, beans, spices/herbs, potatoes, carrots, onions, green onions, and an array of frozen vegetables (though we most often use fresh)
– we’ve just started making our own pizza, and it’s easier than we expected!

Here is one of our favorite frugal and healthy meals – a slow cooker vegetable and chickpea curry that we serve over brown rice. We just throw all of the ingredients into the slow cooker (we use cauliflower instead of green beans, and omit the chile). It’s delicious and makes a ton of food.

It feels like someone’s been looking over my shoulder (or maybe I’ve been looking over April’s?) this week. We’ve had Everything Soup, Smorgasbord Spaghetti, and a dish my kids happily named “Yellow”. Right now I’m saving bread crumbs and apples for a homemade apple crisp.

“I’ve noticed the average pile of yellow ‘stuff’ on the buffet has about five ingredients in it. But they’re all yellow. That means four of them gave up.” -George Carlin

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Priswell

LOL! We used to make something we called “Lizard”, which was actually leftover beef and gravy (homemade) with a biscuit top and baked in the oven.

I don’t know how we got that name, but it stuck.

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Annelise

At first glance, the title of this post really made my hackles rise – I am tired of being told the only way to save money on travel, grooming, food etc. is by taking the peasant route – however, I see “peasant” is being used in its more positive sense here and I do agree with the writer’s advice. I’m also glad you haven’t advocated veganism, which I think is the joyless, culinary equivalent of self-flagelation. Anyway, I particularly recommend buying cheaper cuts of meat, which are often tastier – just make sure you cook them slowly and for longer so they become tender. Lastly, bibimbap is a no-no – the paucity of the basic ingredients makes for an oddly anemic, unsatisfying dish, with an unpleasant aftertaste from the foul-smelling red sauce. There are a few good Korean dishes, but bibimbap is certainly not one of them. If in doubt, avoid anything with that violent red color, as the sauce drowns out the other flavors of the food.

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April Dykman

Yes, I definitely meant “peasant” as a good thing, of course I figured using it in a headline would get some attention, though. 🙂 I truly love the idea of peasant food. When we travel, we try to research where the local workers eat for lunch (not that they are peasants, but they are the modern working class)–the really good places that are reasonably priced but you wouldn’t know about them because they’re nowhere near tourist traps and they don’t have a fancy sign out front.

“…the joyless, culinary equivalent of self-flagelation”–this sounds like something Anthony Bourdain would say (that’s a compliment coming from me). It made me laugh out loud! 🙂

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Liz

What?! Bibimbap is delicious, and I consider myself lucky that there’s a Korean-owned sushi place around the corner from my office that does a bibimbap lunch special. It’s cheap and filling, and one of my favorite aspects of that particular dish is that you can choose exactly how much chili sauce you want to put on it – the ingredients aren’t pre-mixed for you. Maybe you just had a bad batch of sauce, or you dumped too much on it. I don’t get how it’s possible to detest what is essentially just rice with tons of fresh veggies, a bit of meat, and a splash of sesame oil and/or sauce, unless your only experience with bibimbap was horrifically bad.

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Annelise

@ April – I’m glad you enjoyed that line! I just couldn’t think of any better way to say it. I’m definitely an everything-in-moderation girl and would never cut out any food groups.

And Liz, I spent several months in Korea years ago on business and I’ve eaten plenty of Korean food, so I really know what I’m talking about. As commenter Dahlia has pointed out, real bibimbap rarely contains meat (but often egg), which contributes to the unsatisfying quality of it. As for the sauce, yes, you can put less of it in, but in that case you’re just swapping a heavy nasty aftertaste for a lighter one. So avoid bibimbap but try kimbap instead – it’s cheap to make, similar to sushi but with a distinctive sesame taste, and delicious.

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Amanda

I have to disagree.

I lived in Korea for years and have a Korean mother-in-law who taught me how to cook, so I’ve got “sonmat” down to an art. (To quote a coworker’s aunt, “I can’t believe a white woman made this kimchi, it tastes like mine.”)

Bibimbap is great, usually has some sort of protein on it (in fact….I can’t think of a single one I’ve had that didn’t have some sort of protein on it), and you control the gochujang. Also, bibimbap has sesame oil in it, so now sure why that’s called out as a special thing belonging to gimbap.

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El Nerdo

Lastly, bibimbap is a no-no

I think what you mean to say is “…lastly, I hate bibimbap even though it’s the favorite dish of millions of people in Korea, and even beyond her borders.”

violent red

I looooooooove “violent red”!! Do you by any chance not like chili peppers? You’re missing out! Start slow with a mild roasted chile powder and work your way up the Scoville scale. Try Bueno’s “Premium Reserve” chile powder, exquisite– though it’s a local product in my Wal-Mart, you can order it online, and it’s like $5 for a sizable bag (about a pint).

I’m not advising people to avoid bibimbap just because I don’t like it myself – I’ve also been in several situations where groups of foreigners have been introduced to Korean food via bibimbap and it didn’t make a good first impression. For example, I went on a couple of tours to the DMZ with groups of travelers on layovers at Incheon Airport, and the lunch that was included in our ticket was at a bibimbap place (it’s vegetarian, so less hassle with special dietary requests). On my table, I remember both times over half the food remained uneaten – people told me they found the sauce unpleasant and overpowering and the base ingredients uninspiring – and I felt it was a pity that people were leaving with a poor impression of Korean food, which I’d grown to appreciate by that time, based on that one dish. Maybe over time they’d have learned to like it, but I think there are better dishes to introduce people to Korean food, some of which, such as kimbap, probably fall into this “peasant” category. As for chili peppers, I quite like them as long as they’re not too hot! I prefer subtle flavors over heat, however, which is probably why I prefer Japanese food, for example.

Finally, some more relatively cheap Korean suggestions without the violent red sauce would be doenjang guk (similar to miso soup) and chapchae (a great noodle dish).

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Liz

Awesome though some of the restaurants in Incheon may be (not being sarcastic), I wouldn’t base my disapproval of a dish on anything I ate there. If you never encountered bibimbap you liked in Korea, then you probably just don’t like it, which is fine – like Dahlia said, to each his own. But to say a dish isn’t good because you (and tourists trapped in an airport on a layover) weren’t enamored of the flavors on the occasions you had it isn’t really a fair assessment.

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Annelise

Liz, the restaurant was NOT at the airport. It was in Seoul, and we went there after the tour. The other people were all well-traveled and open-minded, so I think it’s fair to say based on their reaction that bibimbap isn’t a good choice if you’re new to Korean food. Go for the dishes I suggested instead.

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Liz

Fair enough, but I’ve also introduced several people to Korean food through bibimbap, and they got hooked on it, so this is clearly something we’re not going to reach an agreement on.

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I.N.

**veganism, which I think is the joyless, culinary equivalent of self-flagelation.**

I am not a vegan. But I’ve been reading some vegan recipe blogs regularly, and I have added a ton of the most colourful, interesting, flavourful and joyful dishes to my repertoire! And have seen a number of rather vivacious and food loving vegans, although myself see no need to take this step.
If you think of veganism this way, you’ve been reading all the wrong things about it.

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EXK

Bean soups are awesome. Will stow this ribollita idea back in my memory somewhere, just in case.

Also, in the vein of frittatas, the “fried egg on top of leftovers” trick is pretty great for a weekend lunch, or weeknight dinner for one or two. I’ve noticed women tend to be more fans of it than men, though, not sure why.

And in addition to the “variety of salty ingredients” advice, I’d add a variety of seasonings common in cuisines you like. Some of my favorite meals are basically just recombinations of frozen spinach, onions, and chickpeas. But they’re very different dishes if they’re in a soup with garlic and ginger, or a curry with coconut milk, or eaten on bread as a thick stew with vinegar, tomato paste, and smoked paprika. Frozen spinach = the best cheap thing in the grocery store, in my opinion!

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Stacy

I second the fried egg on top of leftovers. I also do a fried egg on top of sauteed peppers and mushrooms, or spinach and mushrooms, over polenta. These meals take less than 30 minutes. It’s true though, I’m more of a fan than my husband…

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Jenzer

Some mornings I make what I call “breakfast fried rice” — leftover brown rice and veggies reheated in a skillet, topped with a poached egg or two. The slightly-undercooked yolk makes a nice sauce for the rice. Yum!

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Kraig @ Young, Cheap Living

I’m single so my goal is not to feed an entire family, but feed me as cheaply and as easily as possible, while allowing me to bring in leftovers to work so I can eat there instead of going out for lunch.

My staples that I’ve learned to cook are not very glamorous, but they’re easy and cheap. I make tator-tot hotdish (casserole), homemade chili, meatloaf and baked potatos, spaghetti with garlic toast, and cajun chicken pasta. I recently tried a lasagna recipe from thepioneerwomen.com and it was outstanding, but quite expensive to make, for me.

I’ve cut my expenses greatly by buying groceries and eating in, rather than out. I’m also one of the few people at work who brings in a lunch every day instead of going out. It’s healthier for me too and I don’t feel I have to worry about gaining weight as much as I used to.

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Carol in Mpls

Oh Kraig, I just have to laugh. If you’re eating hotdish, you must be from Minnesota!

“Of course it’s in a ‘hot dish’ — who would want to eat a cold casserole?”

Tater top hot dish, the best.

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my honest answer

My favorite peasant food – pizza. Yum! The easiest way to cut your bill is like you said – less meat, more veggies.

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EXK

Pizza is pretty fantastic, I agree.

It’s not just “more veggies” though, some veggies cost more per pound than cheap cuts of meat! I don’t mean to be a downer, but if I were to eat a lot of the fresh leafy greens or peppers or portabella mushrooms that I love, my grocery bill would double, so most of the time I try to make things work with onions, carrots, cabbage, and frozen spinach. Unfortunately, the affordability of vegetables varies a lot based on location, and not much is cheap in New England for most of the year….

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Marianne

We eat things like chili and pea soup as cheap meals. My husband tries not to eat many carbs as he’s always had weight issues and works very hard to keep his weight down. As a result, cheap foods like rice and pasta are out of the question- or only for once in awhile. My husband does eat a lot of eggs but those aren’t all that cheap anymore…

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Mom of five

Same here. I do keep plenty of cheap carbs like pasta, rice, and taco shells on hand for the kids but my husband and I tend not to eat them so much. Same holds true for cheese.

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sjw

This is where cabbage is great. I love napa cabbage. Good cooked, uncooked, and stretches out a little bit of pulled pork really far in a crepe filling.

I love to buy pork shoulder or lamb shoulder, slow cook, shred, put in 1 cup containers in the freezer, pull out as needed. It’s a big up-front investment – though the cuts sometimes go on sale – but it is a great present to your future self.

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BlueCollarWorkman

While not the most flavorful like some of the recipes here, when we’re trying to stretch it until next payday, we break out the rice and beans. You get a lot of food for so very very cheap! And we often even have leftovers — it’s one way we make it to payday during particularly tight months.

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KS

But rice and beans are very easy to make flavorful. Think Indian, Mexican, middle eastern dishes, southwestern. Black beans cooked with cumin, orange, and garlic. Red beans with carrots, celery, hot chili, and tomato sauce. Chick peas with cumin, coriander, ginger, lemon, and turmeric. They cook up yummy with garlic, onion, ginger, small bits of meat, spices, tomato, you name it.

Sadly, beans are no longer that inexpensive for me as I live in Ireland where even buying them from “Ethnic” stores isn’t that cheap.

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soledad

Pindi chole–yum!

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El Nerdo

Too much rice and beans makes me lazy so I switch to 100% eggs for my animal protein source. Fried, scrambled, poached, boiled hard or soft, stirred into broths, in doughs and curds and creams and even drinks.

costco is selling 24-packs of organic eggs for $6 in my area. not terribly cheap, but if you want cheaper and are willing to go mainstream eggland’s best are great eggs and found everywhere. of course, i’d rather get hand-picked farm eggs if i can get them, but those are 40 miles away and only sold on saturdays. damn you, santa fe farmer’s market!

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Sharon

Or you an get perfectly good and healthy eggs for $.88 a dozen on special at Albertson’s

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El Nerdo

88 cents!! Awesome!! I wouldn’t eat them raw/runny/undercooked like I normally do, but in a pinch, it’s a great way to fill up the fridge with hardboiled eggs which make a great quick lunch with some veggies.

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Carla

I would question if eggs for .88 dozen are truly “healthy”. Sounds fishy to me…

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El Nerdo

I’d rather get 88-cent eggs than a weird bag at a food bank.

Sales will be usually due to upcoming expiration dates. Supermarkets like to stock eggs with 30+ days of shelf life ahead of them. You pick them up on D-29 day and you’re good.

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Carla

@El Nerdo – I was actually referring to the quality of the eggs, where they are from, what the chickens eat, etc. Eggs generally have a pretty long refrigerator shelf life. I didn’t see the initial post that sparked the discussion though. Yes, in that case, .88 eggs is a good deal when your options are limited.

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El Nerdo

Ah! Yeah… I try to buy my eggs as good as I can afford, since I eat so many. Still cheaper than meat.

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Ms Life

I rarely eat rice and beans, but I like it a lot. This dish is more of a delicacy for me, cheap though it is. That’s what I brought to the office for lunch today.

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RobertaM

I love rice and beans! Grew up on boracho beans and Mexican rice but now I love all different versions of it. I even eat brown rice and whatever bean I have on hand for breakfast sometimes. It sticks with you on a twelve hour shift. 🙂

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DJ-MoneyforCollegePro

We also buy our EVOO from a local shop that presses it multiple times per week. One thing I have looked long and hard for at discount prices is cheese, but I have yet to find anything. I suppose that is one food item where you get what you pay for. Any suggestions? Specifically, parmegiana regiana?

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Nicole

Well… there’s this place in Wisconsin that my father goes and gets lots of cheese. I think it is the Mars Cheese castle. He also hits up the Wisconsin state fair and buys the (still delicious) losers at a steep discount in wheels. I assume Oregon, Vermont, California, etc. have local options like that. You won’t get imported parmigiano, but you can get similar domestic hard cheeses.

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DJ-MoneyforCollegePro

Thanks Nicole! I don’t live anywhere close to Wisconsin, but I do have some local dairies around here. I’ll have to check them out for some of their cheeses.

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Megan

As a Chicagoan, let me just say that your dad should skip Mars Cheese Castle and head straight to Woodman’s. Their cheese aisle stretches as far as the eye can see, they have a fantastic selection (organic, local, gourmet, etc., etc.), and it tends to be cheaper than Mars.

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Elizabeth

Good tips! I’d add soup stock to that list of items to have on hand. (I make my own and keep it in the freezer, but you can buy low sodium versions.) If you have little bits of meat or rice or pasta left, you can make a quick serving of soup using up these odds and ends. (I throw in frozen veggies if I don’t have any fresh on hand.)

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Michelle

I need to make some of these!

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Jane

This is good advice. While bacon is expensive if you eat a few slices for breakfast, adding one or two slices to a sauce, soup or veggie is delicious and frugal. Also, if you’re just using it as flavor in a soup, you can buy the cheaper bacon.

Oh, and don’t forget to save the bacon grease. Sometimes I use a small amount of that to saute things instead of butter. I think we have become afraid of grease and lard, but used in moderation they are fine and make simple food taste oh so good.

I love to make a version of pasta fagioli with sauteed bacon, white beans, and diced tomatoes. Sometimes I wilt some spinach in there as well. Don’t forget to add some extra salty pasta water to bind it all together. Shred some Parmesan on top and you’ve got a simple yet delicious meal.

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April Dykman

We love cooking with bacon grease! I’m definitely not fat-phobic, so long as it’s a natural fat.

Sigh. I’m envious of your Trader Joe’s! That’s one thing we don’t have in Austin. I often wonder if that’s because the Whole Foods HQ is here? I can’t imagine a Trader Joe’s NOT doing well in this yuppie town! (I say that with love, as someone who practices yoga and drinks kombucha and works from her laptop all day…)

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El Nerdo

ha ha, I may just start a re-mail order, “personal shopping for busy yuppies” where I ship care packages from New Mexico to people all over the world for a fee. Bueno Chile and Trader Joe’s goodies will be my first products.

(no, i really wouldn’t have the patience. but someone please start such a business. i miss DC and could use some utz crab chips ha ha ha. count me as your next customer if your fees are fair.)

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sjw

Trader Joes has an interesting expansion strategy where they try to keep their stores close to eachother (to reduce shipping cost).

Trader Joes is cheap, but the majority of what they sell is prepackaged, prepared stuff. I find I’m better off going to a normal grocery store (or farmer’s market) since I’m cooking from scratch anyway.

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Andrew

The only trouble with Trader Joe’s is that I always leave with so many more items than I had planned to buy. It’s full of food that you never knew you wanted or needed until you saw it.

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Carla

I agree with Sarah. The only items I can buy from TJ’s are the lemons (the cheapest place I can get them in Oregon), some cleaning and bathroom supplies and their Tree Tea Tingle Shampoo & Conditioner which I love. Everything else is super processed.

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El Nerdo

Of course TJ’s does not specialize in perishables. You can’t get everything there but you can get certain great things much cheaper than other places, like:

they also have a small but decent selection of milks, butters, eggs, etc., when in need.

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babysteps

Bacon, look for the chain pharmacy store circulars, every 2 or 3 months one of them (Walgreen’s, CVS, RiteAid) will have some name brand bacon 2 for 1. Bacon freezes fine

Also, if you live near farms look for places that sell their own bacon – we can get locally raised organic bacon for no more than brand-name bacon at the supermarket (won’t save you money unless you buy 1/2 the pig at once, but does taste a lot better!).

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Cari

Trader Joe’s will be opening the following stores in Texas sometime this year:

Dallas – lower Greenville
Plano – Preston & Park
Fort Worth

I can’t wait!

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Anita

I make my own bacon out of whatever boneless pork is less than $2 a pound. I don’t have my recipe here but if you just google buckboard bacon you will get a slew of recipes and it’s easy. My favorite is when the local grocery marks down pork loin, I buy a bunch and cut off the fatty side to make into bacon and the rest of it I make into ground pork, or dice it and make sweet and sour pork or slice and pound it into thin pieces dredge in seasoned flour and fry.

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Leah

Not wasting food is great, and limiting meat and dairy are two other ways to save money. Especially when I was single, I had a lot of nights where I just ate veggies stir-fried with tofu and a little chili garlic sauce. It was quick and easy, and it didn’t cost much. I use perhaps a quarter of a container of tofu per meal, so I really made my food dollar stretch. I saved meat for special occasions.

Learning how to cook from scratch also helps. Cream of mushroom soup isn’t that expensive, but it usually just gets thrown into casserole as a binder. It’s a lot cheaper to make your own cream sauce. Melt a tablespoon or two of butter, and combine with an equal amount of flour. Then, add milk (a cup or two? I just eyeball it all and add more milk if it’s getting too thick) and cook down until thick. That’s what I use in place of cream soup, and it costs much less than a can with WAY less sodium.

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Nicole

Also tastes way better! I used to love Campbells but now it just tastes artificial to me. Great tip!

That roux can also make a fantastic gravy.

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Bella

This is something I need to start doing, I don’t have any pancake or cake mixes in my cupboard because it’s easier cheaper healthier (insert good adj here) to just make from scratch, but I think I still rely on canned soup for too many of my dishes.

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Ru

I have never understood people who use box mix for pancakes- they’re just eggs, milk, and flour (a little melted butter if you want to get fancier). This is coming from a girl who ate 16 pancakes on Tuesday…

I can understand box cake mix in some circumstances, though I never use it. If you only make chocolate cake once in a blue moon it can be annoying to have cocoa powder knocking around. I have such little cupboard space in my kitchen (sharing with 4 other people) that I have to store all my baking stuff in my bedroom.

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Nicole

Oh, but box cake is so bad when you’ve had real cake. I didn’t know cake could actually taste good until we made our first one from scratch. It’s a whole world of difference. Flavor, texture, crumb…

(Granted, real cake, especially the kind with creamed butter instead of oil, is more expensive than box cake. But worth it.)

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Jane

Unlike Nicole, I actually think cake mixes taste better than homemade in most cases. This is mainly because they are make with actual cake flour, rather than regular flour. This makes it much lighter and airy, which I prefer. But to each his own.

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sandycheeks

I agree with Jane. I prefer boxed cake. I’ve made homemade cakes before and spent a lot of money on bakery cakes/cupcakes for events. Every time I am reminded that it is tastier (to my palate) to bake one from a box mix.

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Debbie M

To those of you who prefer cake from a mix-try one of the recipes with vinegar, called depression cake or war cake. It is lighter and fluffier than the other kinds of cakes I’ve made from scratch, even if you use regular flour.

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Lynda

Found a recipe for cake using vinegar and baking soda in one of my cookbooks. It’s a one pan mix and is vegan – no eggs , milk or butter. Comes out great, very moist, doesn’t need frosting and is really easy. My children make variation of it all the time. So much better than anything you can get out of a box.

I bake cakes often, always from scratch. You end up using the same eggs and oil, just mix up the dry ingredients, add some vanilla or lemon zest or coco powder to change it up, just like from a box, but without paying extra for the mix – since I keep the staples in the pantry always. The box cake mixes always taste salty to me and like they have extra ‘additives’. I get my kids in the act to crack eggs and learn how to measure (disguised math exercises in using fractions, reading and following instructions). In the end, they have had fun, fight over who gets the spoon, and get to eat their math homework.

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Nicole

You can buy cake flour at the grocery store. Some cakes use that, some cakes use regular flour.

Some cakes use butter. Some cakes use oil.

There are many kinds of cakes you can make from scratch.

Grocery store and bakery cakes are often not any better than box cakes because often they are just box cakes.

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LJ

I use cake mixes, but always make my own frosting/icing. I hate canned frosting!

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stellamarina

To that white sauce of Leahs you just need to add a can of tuna to have creamed tuna that I like served on toast, or grated cheese which becomes Welsh Rarebit…..another peasant food.

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Nicole

Another really important thing to save money on food is to not let food go to waste. When bread goes stale, there are a million uses for it. (Moldy, not so much.) One of my absolute favorites is bruschetta.

Bits and pieces and odds and ends can go into stirfry, omeletes, pasta dishes, or soups/stews. Complete leftover meals can be taken for lunch the next day.

Soup and stir fry are my go-to foods too — I can throw just about anything in them 🙂 I also save the veggie trimmings for soup stock.

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Susan

When I was a young girl I loved my grandmother’s polenta. She used to laugh at me while I ate it (she served stew over it) and said it was nothing to get excited about–it was poor people’s food. I think of her everytime I see polenta on the menu of an expensive restaurant.

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Bella

HaHa, that’s like when we go to an Inidan friends house and he makes us yellow dahl – we think it’s awesome – his wife (who is also Indian) was horrified he would serve that to guests.

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